Re: Ask Marilyn "geometry test"

[John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

> > This is a typical answer for someone who thinks that learning is
> > memorization rather than learning to think.  Remember there are teachers
> who
> > would mark the following question and answer wrong.
> > Q: What causes things to fall
> > A: The earth
> > Because they expect the word gravity, instead of the correct "thing".
> > I would give Mary a bonus or better yet praise her for inventiveness and
>
> I agree with your suggestion to give Mary praise for her inventiveness but
> not with your answer as to the question "What causes things to
> fall?"  I may
> give credit to an answer like the earth but I would hope for a
> better answer
> like "I have no idea".  I believe that is the answer Galileo gave.

Of course the word what can be interpreted as meaning the mechanism, but the
more concrete meaning of what physical object can only be answered by the
earth.  As such the earth is the "thing" which makes objects fall.  I was
just pointing out that all too often elementary teachers start students on
the path of confusing things with ideas, and reward them for answers like
gravity.  And yes, the fact that Newton or Hook came up with a model for the
interaction does not actually explain it.  If the elementary teachers
instead asked what is the name for the idea that objects fall to earth,
certainly gravity is acceptable.

The answer that gravity makes things fall is actually rather medieval.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX